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Patricia Lindgren and other Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in citizens celebrated the 25th anniversary of the completion of the Dempster Highway by welcoming visitors to the Black City site, 2002.

Steve Kormendy and Elder Jackie Semple at Black City, 2004.

William Henry building a rabbit snare at Black City, 2005.

Lupines on the banks of the Blackstone River.

While our Hän-speaking ancestors were known as “People of the River”, our traditional territory also included the high mountain country to the north and south of the Yukon River valley. In the vast area that now includes Tombstone Territorial Park, we had close ties with the Gwich’in and we both relied on two annual migrations of the Porcupine Caribou Herd to supply us with food, clothing and much else.

After the Klondike Gold Rush, hunters sold tonnes of caribou meat in Dawson City. They then returned to the Blackstone country to trap for fox, wolf and wolverine. Black City, also called Blackstone City, was one of the camps used as bases for hunting, trapping and travelling on the land by the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, Tukudh Gwich’in and Tetl’it Gwich’in.